


the centuries go on

by namio



Category: Houshin Engi, 覇穹 封神演義 | Hakyuu Houshin Engi (Anime)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Canonical Character Suicide, Family Fluff, Fic Collection, Gen, I brought angst into this household, Pre-Canon, at this point this is basically accidentally a gyokutei collection, i just needed more gyokutei and youzen family fics in my life, i love bunchuu but especially when hes happy, idk how i feel abt that, so i rose to the occasion
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-07
Updated: 2018-08-05
Packaged: 2019-05-19 04:19:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14866478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/namio/pseuds/namio
Summary: Still, they're made up of moments.16. ColdThe sunset is gold and blood red behind him, deep indigo at front. It brings no warmth to him, the lonely father of a dead child.a 50-themes fic collection.





	1. 36. Crossroads (Gyokutei & Genshitenson, Youzen, G)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This decision was bigger than just himself. More importantly, this decision would define this child's life.
> 
> Or, Gyokutei is asked to take in Youzen.

“Thank you for coming on a short notice, Gyokutei Shinjin.”

“I figured it was something important,” Gyokutei said, rising from his polite bow. “I was asked to come at once?”

When Genshitenson-sama turned, he stared. The young child in his arms shifted in his sleep, but it was clear that despite being held, he was unhappy— there was a scrunch in his eyebrows and a faint shadow of a frown in his face, turning the peace sleep brought into something… sad. He curled, too, as if defensively. Perhaps it was just something all children do, though. But not all children had horns— curving upwards, the black things rested between bright blue hair, and Gyokutei didn’t know what to make of it.

“Yes. I would like to ask you to take this child in.”

“I— pardon me, what?”

Genshitenson-sama’s voice lowered in volume. “This child is Tsuuten Kyoushu’s only, Youzen. We're establishing a new peace agreement, and this was one half of the trade.”

“Trade?” Gyokutei frowned, though he fought to control any outbursts. “Who did Konron send, then? As a…”

_ Safety measure _ , the thought clicked. Trade important individuals, often children, as a deterrent for any unwanted action. This was almost twisted.

“Ou Eki.”

This time, Gyokutei did startle. “Ou  _ Eki?!” _

Without missing a beat, Genshitenson-sama nodded. “Youzen here has the signs of prodigious talent. Hardly a decade old but already attained almost-perfect human form. Tsuuten Kyoushu said that it's only a matter of years before he could be hornless. The only fair trade was Ou Eki.”

That level of talent… this child was a genius. And Genshitenson-sama wanted  _ him _ to raise him. “Still, trading Ou Eki…?”

A sigh. “Kingou is experiencing a turmoil, Gyokutei. It's a more divided place than Konron. A child as powerful as Youzen getting roped into it would spell disaster for all involved.”

_ But if Ou Eki is the only fair trade, won't that put one of our best in  _ their  _ clutches?  _ But Gyokutei doubted he was someone whose opinion mattered in this— not because of anything, but he never had been that good at seeing things far in the future. Perhaps there was a reason. Regardless, Genshitenson-sama must've made extensive deliberation before coming to that sort of decision, and Gyokutei would have to trust him on this because he could not find any answer himself. For the matter at hand, though…

“Are you certain it should be me? If he's a genius, it probably would be better to place him in the care of somebody who could not just bring out his full potential, but give him at the very least enough mental stimulation.”

He got a chuckle for that. “A child could outgrow a teacher the way they might not a good parental figure.” A pause. Gyokutei let the thought sink. “Nobody less than the Juunisen would suffice here; he's simply going to grow too fast for anyone else. It'd be a slight to Kingou Island on top of that. But Youzen is also a very small child— he's impressionable, and he needs a master who can guide him right.”

That… was food for thought. It was rather flattering, yes, but more importantly, that made clear the importance and significance of this role— it wasn't just that Youzen would be a disciple, but that until he was old enough to truly be a student, he'd be a child to be raised. That years before he would be trained to meditate and fight and the likes, Gyokutei would have to teach him virtues, manners, morals, and lay down the groundwork on which he'd view the world for the rest of his life…

It was a big decision. It might even affect Youzen for a long time, if not a lifetime.

“I will consider,” Gyokutei said. “It's… not a small decision, and it probably would be wise to ask Youzen as well, once he wakes up. It wouldn't be right to force somebody into becoming someone's disciple.”

Genshitenson-sama nodded. “I understand. Will tomorrow morning be enough time?”

A mere night might not be enough time, but no time might be enough in this case. While he might lose sleep tonight thinking over this, Youzen must've lost sleep too, thinking about what would become of his fate now that he was taken out of his home and be placed in a society that might not even accept his race. Not finding a good home soon would affect him; even if Gyokutei ended up saying no, doing it as early as possible would allow Genshitenson-sama to ask somebody else sooner rather than later.

“That should suffice.”

“That's good. I will see you tomorrow then.”

The child was still in those arms, having slept through a talk where he could've very easily been handed over to somebody else, almost like a commodity. That thought and that sad, sleeping face remained with Gyokutei even as he ate dinner and drank tea, watching the stars rise and eventually fall outside the windows.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heYO. I'm still pretty darn new to this entire thing so honestly I'm still kinda probing around the characterizations but also just. All the honorifics thing? It's something that's been bothering me because I don't read the manga in Japanese, obviously, so there's that. Always feel free to point sth out on that ! I need guidance TM
> 
> but other than that, welcome to my own personal hell


	2. 20. Rose (Gyokutei & Youzen, G)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Youkai aging was a topic far beyond Gyokutei’s scope of understanding, but it was definitely clear that Youzen was a child— a brilliant one at that— from his wide-eyed curiosity for something as simple as a rose.

“It's taller than even you, Shishou!”

Gyokutei smiled at the tinge of energy and awe contained in that exclamation. Perhaps he did the right thing, then, in bringing him here— cooping the child up in a house that was _not_  equipped for a child his age really was not a good idea, and Gyokutei had an inkling that he’d grown bored _on top of_ being sad. And that showed its toll quickly, too— when Genshitenson-sama said that Youzen was a prodigy, he hadn’t been kidding. In all honesty, Gyokutei wasn’t sure if he would suffice as a mentor. He wasn’t even able to answer a number of questions Youzen posed in the first weeks of his arrival, especially those that concerned the natural sciences. Meanwhile, Youzen ate up knowledge with such a hunger that it’d be practically a crime to leave him without a proper teacher.

But on the other hand, he had grown attached to this child. Gyokutei didn’t know if he could hand him over to anyone else— at least not if it wasn’t Youzen himself who asked for it.

“So it is,” Gyokutei said, smiling. “It’s not a naturally-grown rose; I believe it’s a rose somebody grew for a project long ago.”

“It doesn’t have that many leaves,” Youzen commented, getting to his tiptoes to reach for the bottom-most petal— and failing. “How does it feed itself? With its roots?”

After a questioning hum and an enthusiastic nod, Gyokutei lifted Youzen into his arms, taking a step closer so that he could reach out for the flower. “You know more about plants than I do, Youzen, but that sounds likely. We won’t know for certain unless we ask, though. Would you like to do that?”

Youzen recoiled a bit at that, and Gyokutei shushed him, free hand reaching up to brush his hair back. His little hands were moving already to his horns, his expression knotted with anxiety and self awareness— Gyokutei hated that this was something so… forefront, prominent in his life now. His horns and his heritage. Because he was a brilliant and a good child, and deserved to be judged based on that, not because he was a youkai. Because he deserved to not feel like an _other_ here, even though Gyokutei himself would always ask him to maintain his human guise in the end, just to keep him safe.

“Is that… even allowed?”

Well… not really, not yet. But Youzen was learning many things fast without even a dedicated training, and it wouldn’t be long until he could hide the horns and be able to live like any other child. Until then, perhaps they could figure something out. A compromise. “I will ask. We could still get answers to your questions no matter what, though, I’m sure.”

Now that he thought about it, perhaps introducing him to the likes of Unchuushi would not be the best idea when Youzen was this young. It wasn’t that he distrusted the man. It was just, his reputation…

Youzen curled in on himself. “I don’t want to cause trouble...”

“You’re not,” Gyokutei said, ruffling Youzen’s hair. “I’ll ask for now, okay? And once you get better at your transformation, we can always come back and _you_ can do all the asking— then you can get all the answers you want. Does that sound good?”

“Okay,” he murmured, bangs hiding his eyes as he lowered his head. Still, Gyokutei could catch an undercurrent of giddiness in that small reply— hopefully, one day they could have Youzen be more comfortable, both with himself and with his new home, so that he could be more openly the excited, curious child he was.

Smiling, Gyokutei shifted him into a more comfortable seat in his arm. “Do you want to get closer to the rose? Maybe you can spot something.”

Youzen blinked. “If it's okay with you, Shishou…”

“Of course it's okay.”

His tiny fingers were gentle as they traced the petals. It was heavy with rain water, the rose, and it bobbed as the slightest prod, spraying droplets everywhere. Youzen blinked owlishly, stilled. Gyokutei couldn't help it— he laughed.

“Oh.”

“It happens sometimes,” Gyokutei said, laughter still lingering in his voice as he dabbed the water clean off Youzen's face with his scarf. Youzen leaned back at that but didn't protest, eye closing as the fabric patted too close. “It's all right, though. Do you still want to look at it some more?”

“...Will it spray us again?”

Wrapping the fabric of his scarf around Youzen to protect him from any wayward waterworks, Gyokutei looked at him. “We’ll never know until we try. Why not give it another go?”

* * *

“Youzen, I'm home.”

Muted thumps of feet running on wooden floor greeted him as Gyokutei placed the pot down, mindful of the spots of dirt flying out as it settled with a thud. Soon enough Youzen was there, eyes bright with a mix of excitement and relief. Nothing seemed amiss— then again, Youzen had always been a well-mannered boy. “Shishou! Welcome home.”

Then his gaze drifted to the pot, and he gasped. “That's…?”

“Roses,” Gyokutei confirmed. “I came across a wild bush while I was out and I thought I might as well bring back a specimen for you to study. It’s got its roots and all, so it might have a chance at surviving for a while. We probably will need to move it, though. How about you carry it to the back and we get to it before dinner?”

“Okay!” There was a spring to his step as he ran off with the pot clutched tight to his chest, hair bobbing around the horns with each beat. Still, though—

“Ah, Youzen, be car—” and he was always out of sight.

Children. It was good, though, that Youzen was getting more cheerful in general. The outdoors trip did its job and more. Hopefully, he could get used to this life sooner than later. While Gyokutei couldn’t be the father Youzen clearly missed, he hoped that at least he could give the child a good life.

But right now, he needed to check and see if they still have a usable shovel. It had been so long since he needed one…

The sun was already on its descent when Gyokutei reemerged from the storage with a hand shovel and a watering can, sneezing from the dust. They were still functional, at least— a couple of decades, maybe a century old, but nothing was rusted to the point of brittleness yet. If Youzen ended up liking gardening, well, they’d need to get new ones, but this would suffice.

“All ready already, huh,” Gyokutei called out as he walked to the backyard, squinting a bit from the sunlight. Youzen was already there, impatiently rocking on the balls of his feet. He even had the pot sit by a softer patch of soil, rather than the packed earth that made up most of these floating islands. “I guess we can get down right to it, then.”

Nodding enthusiastically, Youzen knelt on the dirt. Shooting an expectant look, his hand reached up for the shovel— and so Gyokutei handed it to him, smiling. Let the child try it out, he supposed. Youzen’s eyes sparkled with determination as he first dug the shovel in. Hunched over, his hair fell and curtained the sides of his face, though, and Youzen let out a noise of annoyance.

Gyokutei shook his head, pushing back a smile. “Actually, stay still for a bit. Let me tie your hair so it doesn’t get in the way.”

With a pout Youzen did so, dropping the shovel and straightening his back. Hmmm. Gyokutei didn't have a hairband, but he could use a strip of cloth. He probably would need to get Youzen some rubber bands, though. It'd be much easier for him.

Youzen’s hand, inching slowly as if to hide his movements, grasped the shovel again. Then, slowly, he poked at the soil. Gyokutei wanted to laugh at the impatience— but then again, he too didn't have too much patience to sit still when he was much younger. Any other child Youzen’s age would've already crawled their way to another island in half the time. “Is this the size of _normal_ roses? It's so much smaller than that other one. And it needed so many more leaves, too, just to survive. Like, these dozen of roses have over fifty, maybe. How come?”

Aah. This was exactly why Gyokutei thought twice about taking in Youzen— he doubted he could answer the barrages of questions children tended to ask, much less a genius child. They were bound to get much harder much quicker, too. Still…

“I reckon it's because well, these are _normal_ roses. They’re not as good at getting its nutrients as the one probably made to be really good at it— like a rose somebody changed to grow really big, for example. So they need more leaves. They need the extra help to survive.”

Youzen stopped fiddling. “Oh, so like… Ooh! Like humans and natural Doushi?”

Gyokutei blinked. How did a child this age knew of humans, when he was raised in Kingou island? For that matter, how did he know about natural Doushi? Did Tsuuten Kyoushu allowed him to see some…? He knew that Kingou island took in humans, at times, but hmm…

“That's a good comparison, I think.”

“So it's kinda like Sennin bones.”

“Mhm.”

“Ooh… so do you think we can make the normal roses grow much faster if we uh, implant? The big rose somethings into the normal roses? They should be able to grow bigger and with less leaves too, then. Oh! Do you think we can do other things with it? I’ve seen some plant-type Youkai do things with their flowers!”

Gyokutei tied the cloth holding Youzen’s hair up and flicked the ponytail, nodding in satisfaction when it didn't loosen. Admittedly, he had no idea what Youzen said in his previous barrage of… sentences— he spoke too fast. They really needed to get the child a proper teacher for natural sciences. “All right, Youzen, you can get to it now.”

A blinding smile. “Thank you, Shishou!”

They had dinner late that day, Youzen laying his head against his shoulder as they made their way to the kitchen. But Youzen was smiling even to his rice, eyes darting to the windows to the backyard, and that honestly made it worth the while.

* * *

"Shishou?”

Gyokutei looked down as he pulled Youzen’s blankets up to his chin, blinking. It was dark, despite the clear stream of moonlight from the windows. Still, he could see Youzen’s eyes: wide open and full of curiosity, thoughts whizzing too fast for him to sleep. It was almost always that way, what with how Youzen hardly expended enough energy during the day to be sleepy by bed time, but Gyokutei enforced it anyway. It was important for growth.

Didn't mean that Youzen slept on his designated time, though. Even when he exhausted himself with the gardening today. “Yes?”

“But _why_ would a plant have a flower that _didn't_ have pollens or that other stick thing in its middle?”

Gyokutei pressed a kiss on his forehead. Youzen stilled. “We'll talk about this tomorrow. Good night, Youzen.”

He was going to _need_ to study from now on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Initially I was gonna end it on the first part... but it spiralled out of control and I frankly have no idea where I was going as it went on. Sorr


	3. 1. Speak (Gyokutei & Outenkun, T)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post-canon, decades/centuries or so.  
> Gyokutei and Outenkun talk.

Outenkun barked a laugh. “I killed you.”

“So you did,” Gyokutei agreed. That even tone hadn't left his voice, though he didn't smile either. He'd smiled at Taikoubou, so Outenkun knew it wasn't that he didn't smile often. It just meant that he hadn't forgotten that entire episode, but for some reason he thought to approach Outenkun as if they were on speaking terms. As if he could accept that time back then.

_ That _ … was pissing him off. What was he trying to prod at, here? This was definitely some sort of manipulation tactics, because Outenkun could feel it— furthermore, Outenkun  _ knew  _ about nasty emotional shit as a foundation of an intricate plot, because he had used it before.  _ Taikoubou _ had used it before. Gyokutei couldn't be accepting for no reason. There was an ulterior motive— most likely, he was trying to get Outenkun to do something.

“So?” Outenkun bit out. Leaned back, chewed on a nail. “What is it?”

“I knew some parts of what was going on centuries ago, when Youzen was entrusted to me,” Gyokutei said, words slow and deliberate. “Of course, things turned out to be more complicated than they seemed. Youzen came by a while ago to talk with me about— well, many things that were revealed as the war unfolded. They brought new perspectives.”

This time, he laughed. Fucking disgusting. “You're trying to talk to me about that? Save the fucking pity. I don't need that. Save all that boohoo for your darling little prince— daddy's favorite boy definitely didn't deal well with his beloved shishou’s death.”

That part of the Great Sennin War was definitely funny, though, even if there was a spark of humanity in him that understood the depths of how horrible that all was. But it got the job done, and heh, the houshined souls remained  _ and  _ practically lived on as normal so honestly, no harm no foul, really. People were so ungrateful, they still asked Outenkun for more even though he was already more gracious than the situation necessitated.

“Youzen definitely still needs emotional support, even if he already is well-versed with his job nowadays,” Gyokutei admitted, and wow this was not something Outenkun wanted to hear. He wasn't here for little Kenseijiro Shinkun’s status as told by worried dad Gyokutei Shinjin. Why was he not exiting stage left right now? He had access to warps. “But that's besides the point. I gave this a lot of thought, but ultimately what I come to is… if you or Taikoubou need it, you may come to me.”

Outenkun climbed into his warp. “I'm out.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was actually the first fic I wrote for HouEn...? I think. Probably. Might be off, but it's pretty close.  
> Blame all those dumb comics with Gyokutei being Outenkun's dadster. (most of them are really funny)


	4. 16. Cold (Bunchuu, T)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The sunset, in its bands of bright gold, blood red, and deep darkness is the road Bunchuu walks on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Canonical but vague mentions of suicide.

The dying sun has no more warmth left to give, and has left everything stretched in front of him in deep streaks of purple.

Now that he is standing still, Taikoubou a few feet in front of him, the caking blood streaks on his face shivers in the sunset breeze. It's cold. When he was fighting against all that threatened his dear child, blood pumped within him like a righteous flame. But now it's gone.

Ever since Hiko died, perhaps. The fight with Taikoubou had sent adrenaline running through his veins, but it's a pale imitation of fire. It fades within moments, like the brief band of red lining the horizon, and turns into a night he finally truly sees.

Beyond him is the night: a deep blue, with dots of stars like souls blinking.

It's cold. It's a cold that spreads like pinpricks of ice deep into his bones, digging into the marrow within. It's the kind that hurts— it feels like when he realized that both Yin and Hiko are gone, both together, in one excruciating moment. A shade more numb, perhaps. When Kokukirin collapsed, dead in service to him.

The dying sun has no more warmth to give. In the silence, everything comes to a sharp clarity.

“Perhaps,” he starts, vision coming into a steady blur for a single moment, “if I had met you sooner, I would've found a different path.”

It's almost an intangible idea, as intangible as the outlines of everything he currently sees. But it's a… hopeful thought.

A mere thought, nonetheless. A regret he thinks about only at the end of the road— he has never been one to dwell on things he has no control over.

“Goodbye, Taikoubou.”

A step backwards. The back of his sole presses against the edge of the cliff and tips over, steady, down into the dark.

He sees, for a moving moment, the full light of the sunset he's turned his back to.

  
The stars, like souls, blink at him above.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> bunchuu makes me so sad i saw that card where he's holding sth glowing in his hands and looks so happy and he's absolutely radiant


End file.
